When do Agility Dogs Peak?

The topic for this Dog Agility Blogger Action Day is aging, and we are focusing on the natural trajectory of a dog’s speed over a career. We selected several fast, consistent, notable golden retrievers from the past and present and plotted their yards-per-second (YPS) in jumpers with weaves (JWW) over time.

Click image to view a larger, interactive chart where you can click on the legend to highlight a particular dog.

It appears that speed increases with experience, reaches a plateau that indicates the “prime time” of the dog’s career, and gradually declines (probably reflecting age-related physical changes). Of note, for these dogs, the plateau begins around age 5-6, and begins to decline around age 9.

Notes: 1. Kelsey and Holly ran in an earlier era of dog agility, and no data was available for their early career runs. 2. Only runs from excellent/masters JWW were included, mostly from 20″, but there are a few 24″ and 26″ runs included. 3. Beamer is still actively competing in regular classes.